USA finally showed up against Sweden – but it was too little, too late

As Sweden took a victory lap and Abba’s Dancing Queen blared through the night at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Alyssa Naeher stood with her hands on her hips in disbelief. It took several minutes – what felt like an eternity – for VAR to confirm that the ball had crossed the line on the final penalty of the game.

It was almost impossible to tell with the naked eye whether Swedish forward Lina Hurtig’s shot had crossed the line, after not one but two swats from the USA goalkeeper. An incredulous Naeher threw her hands in the air and yelled to her goalkeeping coach, Philip Poole, appearing to believe the video proved she had saved the penalty.

She later accepted she needed to look at the replay again. “It’s tough to have your World Cup end by a millimeter,” Naeher said, adding that there are no moral victories, even when a team plays well in a knockout-round loss.

“I’ve seen pictures and I still can’t see how [the ball crossed the line],” USA coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “That just shows how cruel this game sometimes can be, and how small a detail makes a difference between winning and losing.”

Those small margins were in USA’s favor five days earlier, when the woodwork saved them from a defeat that would have knocked out in the group stage. The Americans were poor throughout the group stage, but on Sunday they turned in their strongest performance at this World Cup – and their best in a game that mattered in four years under Andonovski. It was too little, too late.

Even in the absence of suspended playmaker Rose Lavelle, Sunday’s performance was everything that Andonovski and his players had promised but previously failed to deliver. Everything, that is, except ruthlessness in front of goal. The Americans pressured Sweden from the opening whistle and kept their foot on the gas, keeping possession and pinning Sweden back into deep areas. Trinity Rodman had her best game of the tournament, combining with the midfield and forcing Sweden goalkeeper Zećira Mušović into several first-half saves. Mušović made 11 saves in total during the match, several of them sensational, to thwart a USA attack that finally had some life.

“She was incredible tonight,” Andonovski said. “She made some saves that not many goalkeepers in the world can make. I can’t think of any other reason why we’re out of the tournament. I thought that we had a great gameplan, great strategy, we executed the gameplan, we had the right personnel on the field to execute the gameplan. And if I had to coach this group, this game all over again, I’d probably do the same.”

The US could have done with that approach from the start of this tournament. Emily Sonnett started as a holding midfielder next to Andi Sullivan in a double pivot for the USA on Sunday. Usually a center-back, Sonnett has played in the No 6 role this season for her club, OL Reign, but she had never previously started in the position for the US. In fact, this was her first-ever start at a World Cup. It was Andonovski’s one big gamble, and it looked like a masterstroke from the opening minutes.

Sonnett was one of the best players on the pitch. She was calm and error-free on the ball, even under significant pressure from a physical Swedish midfield. And she cleaned up everything defensively, sliding over to cover for Crystal Dunn when the full-back became isolated in the first 10 minutes. She was also quick to clear danger – as she did in the 30th minute, when a rare threatening pass from Sweden nearly found the feet of Stina Blackstenius.

Andonovski has been pragmatic to a fault at times during his USA tenure, including in the group-stage draw with the Netherlands, when he made only one substitution. On Sunday, he chose to replace the creative Lavelle with the defensive-minded Sonnett because, he said, the team needed a second No 6 to stop counterattacks from Sweden. Everything about his plan looked correct as Sonnett marshalled the midfield and stymied Sweden. But it was odd that it took until this game to figure that out: the double pivot had looked like the clear answer to USA’s struggles before, beginning in a January victory over New Zealand. Instead of sticking with that system, however, Andonovski continued to tinker throughout the spring, in part due to injuries. He decided to play the first three matches of the World Cup with Sullivan as the lone No 6, and the US midfield struggled as a result.

On Sunday, Sullivan and Sonnett sat behind Lindsey Horan, who assumed the No 10 role from Lavelle for the day, and the US bossed the midfield. For a 10-minute stretch before half-time, the Americans had 77% of the possession to Sweden’s 9% (the remaining 14% was deemed “in contention” by Fifa statistics).

“I think you saw a different team out there today,” Horan said. “I saw a very confident, poised, patient team that wanted to play. We controlled the game. It was amazing. I felt joy when I played. It was just so nice. Everything was clicking except for that final piece of putting the ball in the back of the net. That’s football. It sucks, it’s hard and it hurts; it’s painful. Penalties are the worst thing possible but at the end of the day, I’m proud.”

Ultimately, the lack of finishing proved costly against Sweden – a theme for the US throughout the tournament. Mušović was spectacular, including in the 53rd minute, when she tipped away a sizzling volley from Horan. Alex Morgan was denied from close range in second-half stoppage time. Lynn Williams had the best opportunity of extra-time in the 101st minute when she got behind Sweden left-back Jonna Andersson – as she regularly did from the moment she entered the match in the 66th minute – but Mušović dropped down low to push the ball away.

The Sweden goalkeeper got her team to a penalties but she did not have to make a save in the shootout. Megan Rapinoe skied USA’s fourth spot-kick over the bar, and Sophia Smith then shanked what would have been the winning kick. Kelley O’Hara hit the post in the seventh round of kicks before Hurtig’s winning penalty.

“I thought we deserved a lot more,” Andonovski said. “We deserved to win this game. We created enough to win this game and I thought that we put up a fight, a battle. I thought that we represented this country proud, and showed what we stand for and did everything right. We did everything right.”

The USA arguably didn’t deserve to get out of the group given their performances there. They were heavily criticized for their lackluster play and inability to solve pressure or adjust to opponents. Much of that criticism fell on Andonovski, who answered a repeated line of questioning about his job on Sunday by saying that he has not thought about his future, and that he never coaches to try to save his job.

His best performance in charge of the US might have come on Sunday. It was certainly his team’s best showing at this World Cup. It was also against an opponent they would not have faced this early in the tournament had the US been better in the group stage.

As Andonovski said to close what might be his final press conference as USA manager: “Now is the time for criticism.”